Feasibility, Acceptability, and Effectiveness Pilot Study of a Culturally Adapted and Digitized Food-Focused Media Literacy Intervention: JUS Media? Global Classroom – Somali American

Acculturating immigrant and refugee adolescents are at risk for unhealthy eating and obesity through exposure to mainstream U.S. media featuring unhealthy food advertisements. Moreover, food marketing research shows that Black youth, including Black immigrants and refugees, are disproportionately targeted by U.S. junk food advertising. To help address this problem, this study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of JUS Media? Global Classroom – Somali American version (JMGC-SA), a culturally adapted, digital, food-focused media literacy intervention that promotes healthier eating for acculturating Somali American adolescents. This pilot study recruited 159 students in 7th–12th grades attending a Somali American charter school (M_age = 15, 47.8% girls) in the Midwestern United States. Students received the JMGC-SA video curriculum accompanied by two interactive activities. Primary outcomes of readiness to eat a healthier diet and food-focused media literacy were assessed before and after the intervention and analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test. Predictors of acceptability were assessed and analyzed using Pearson correlations and t-tests. Implementation of JMGC-SA in school classrooms was found to be feasible with a retention rate of 85.55%. Students reported the program as acceptable overall (3.56/5) and across each cultural adaptation dimension (all means > 3.2/5). After participating in the intervention, students demonstrated significantly higher readiness to increase consumption of vegetables (Cohen’s d = 0.27) and reduce dietary salt (d = 0.20). This brief, digital, culturally adapted, food-focused media literacy intervention for Somali American adolescents was found to be feasible, acceptable, and effective. Efficacy research and extension to other acculturating Black adolescents are the next steps.